Finding Joy in Motherhood – May 13, 2001
If certificates of excellence were handed out to mothers, it might be quite surprising to see how many of those mothers would hang their heads and say: “I can’t accept this. I don’t deserve it. I made too many mistakes.” Part of this feeling within mothers comes from the fact that they often expect perfection from themselves, and when they fall short, they feel like failures. Instead of thinking of all that they haven’t done, perhaps it’s time for mothers to focus on and recognize all they have done.
A mother of five became depressed as she thought of the many things she should have done. She realized that this type of thinking was only dragging her down, and decided to change her focus by writing a list of things she’d done for her children. As she wrote, more and more things came to mind. Even the simplest acts were recorded, such as teaching them to brush their teeth, fixing their favorite meals on birthdays, teaching them to say their prayers, saying her own prayers in their behalf, attending school concerts, teaching them to be honest, hugging them when they cried, and on it went. As she wrote, the realization that she’d done much to bless the lives of her children replaced her despair with a new feeling of joy in her motherhood.
A mother’s happiness is contagious, and can’t help but spill over into the lives of her children. Finding joy in motherhood may well be one of the greatest gifts a mother can give her children.
Program #3743